A near-perfect last dive earned England's Tom Daley and James Denny Commonwealth Games silver - missing out on gold by a minute margin - after just a week's preparation on Friday night.

As there were only four pairs in men's synchronised 10-metres platform, just two medals were awarded at Edinburgh's Royal Commonwealth Pool and the English duo, a new partnership, had looked out of contention entering the sixth dive.

Daley and Denny had just seven days of training together after deciding to enter last Friday and the 20-year-old duo finished with a forward four-and-a-half somersault which scored 95.46 to record a total of 399.36.

Australia's Matthew Mitcham and Domonic Bedggood held their nerve to win by 0.18 with a total of 399.54.

Daley said: "It was one of those last-minute decisions that we made to do it.

"We managed to do it and we're pretty happy with the way that we performed.

"It's agonisingly close and we know that, but it's one of those things.

"We're a new pair. We've only ever done three training sessions together. Friday, Monday and today, before competition.

"That was the fifth repetition of each of our dives that we've done and that was in competition.

"We're pretty happy with the way that we dived. If we'd been told that we would get a silver medal and do the dive that we did at the end, we'd have been like 'yeah, okay, whatever'.

"The last dive I was surprised at because you never know what's going to happen under pressure. We managed to pull it out when it counted."

The English pair were fourth ahead of the final round, but produced their event-high score to send their watching team-mates, coaching staff and supporters into raptures.

However, Mitcham and Bedggood scored 88.56 with their final dive - a back two-and-a-half somersault two-and-a-half twists - to move ahead of the English duo with two dives to go.

Neither the Malaysia pair nor the Canadians could displace them as Daley and Denny reached the podium.

Denny, who returned from injury to dive last week, said: "It was awesome. To finish on a dive like that, we couldn't ask for anything better.

"We were stood on the 10m (platform) at the end before the last dive and Tom just told me to give it my all, win or lose. We both gave it our all and came out with the highest-scoring dive of the competition."

Daley won the event in Delhi with Max Brick when only four entrants meant just two medals were awarded.

At the halfway point in proceedings, with the English pair preparing for their fourth plunge off the top platform, the event announcer reminded the crowd that only two medals would be awarded and Denny over-rotated at entry.

Fourth ahead of the final round, the English duo nailed their final dive, at an event-high difficulty of 3.7, and were rewarded accordingly by the judges, who issued the best score of the event.

Daley added: "We knew that before going into competition but it makes it a bit more dramatic when they tell the crowd halfway through."

The pair will now prepare for the European Championships in Berlin later this month.

"There's a lot of things to improve on and a lot of potential with the (dive) list," Daley added.

First things first, though, for the Plymouth diver, who is focused on the defence of the individual 10m platform title he won in Delhi in 2010, which takes place on Saturday's final day of diving competition.

The 2008 Olympic champion Mitcham, after winning his first Commonwealth Games gold following six silvers, will be a major rival for Daley.